Next time you’re in the Glasgow, Scotland area make a note to visit Paisley Abbey. And be sure to look up.
Having had new stonework done during a refurbishment in the 1990s, the abbey features a variety of creepy new gargoyles, but the current pride of its collection might just be the snarling head of a xenomorph from the Alien movies.
Paisley Abbey’s original twelve gargoyles were redone in 1991, having crumbled after centuries of existence, and a stonemasonry firm in Edinburgh was given the task of designing and creating new gargoyles to install on the abbey walls.
The particular mason who crafted the xenomorph from Alien remains unnamed and the abbey seemingly has no plans to remove the bust. Reverend Alan Birss of the abbey takes its existence in stride, “ I think it was a stonemason having a bit of fun. Perhaps the film was fairly new when they were carving this and if he was thinking of an alien perhaps the alien from the film was his idea of an alien.” (Alien 3 would follow the installment of the gargoyle by only a year. Viral marketing at its earliest and weirdest?)
Other busts include a man being devoured alive by a fish, a man screaming in a fetal position, and a very direwolf-looking wolf. Take a look at the above link.
Stubby the Rocket is the mascot of Tor.com and wouldn’t mind being carved out of stone as long as it could still fly through the cosmos every day of the week.
